Our Site Build It! Home Video Channel

Back in 2006 SiteSell ran an "I Love SBI!" home video contest. The first prize was a whopping $10,000! Even without the huge Grand Prize I think Tamar and I would have entered the contest. But the prize money sure gave us a push.

We both put a whole lot of our creative energy into trying to explain our love for SBI! through a home video. We worked long hours, came up with three videos, and... didn't win first prize. But we did win some of the smaller prizes. (There were hundreds of "I Love SBI" videos submitted and here are 36 home video submissions that won some sort of prize, including ours...)

Below you'll find four videos. The top three are the ones we entered into the contest and the last one, at the bottom of the page, is a video I created for this site (based on characters that appear in the other videos...)

The first video I'd like to show you, which is my favorite of the three original submissions, is Tamar's interpretation of the freedom she's experienced with Site Build It!. We spent a whole day shooting footage for this clip together with Tamar's best friend, Mili. I think Tamar probably spent another week to edit it just right. The home video is called "Fly":

A really awesome thing that happened with Tamar's "Fly" home video is that she used a song called "Remembering" by a known musician by the name of Avishai Cohen. We could use it for our own personal use, but when Ken asked to use it as one of the promotional SBI! videos, we ran into a problem. When we tried to fit it with royalty-free music, it just didn't work.

Ken called Avishai's agent and, I don't know how, struck a deal with him that he'd let us use the music as long as we gave him credit. Agents are usually really hard to bargain with, but I guess Ken made him understand that it was worth it for him because hundreds of thousands of people would be exposed to it.

The second video is one I created on the spur of the moment. I was working on something else and I suddenly had this idea that had me "flipping". I shot it on my own and it was done and wrapped up in less than an hour. I called it "Free Yourself with SBI!":

We worked on the third home video the most. Mili helped us shoot it and another friend of mine, Irit, who co-directed with me my "Wanderer" show, helped us with the script. I also "enlisted" one of the characters that appears in my show, Delbert. I like it, but I think we could have made it a bit shorter. We called it "Resign from Your Boring Job!":

And here's the last home video. I shot it on my own in 2008. I was driving back alone from Montreal to Toronto (6hrs) on my Canada 2008 SBI! adventure, and trying to keep awake. So I just started messing around with the dialogue and by the end of the drive I had it nailed. I stopped at Wal-Mart, bought a plaid shirt and hat, and tried to shoot it in the campervan.

My camera's battery ran out.

So, on my last night at the Super 8 hotel in Toronto's China town, I tried to film it again. It didn't come out like I wanted it to. So, I re-shot it one last time at home and this is what came out. I don't know why, but I decided to call it "Horse(radishing) Around":

I hope you've enjoyed our home video collection and I've already got a fun idea for the next one!